It's good to know, as expensive predatory nematodes want a certain warmth. Personally, I always chit my beans on the kitchen counter, to be on the safe side. It also gives a better idea of germination rates. Very interesting comments on his site, too.

If you too are worried about no-show seedlings, check out this new blog post by Cliff Mass. He explains how and why soil temperatures differ from air temperature, and even gives a chart on what soil temperatures are required by various vegetables. Hint: you can go ahead and plant peas,carrots an...

I think this vase is a lizard...or maybe it's a frog...but I love how it's patterning plays off spring flowers, keeping down the sweetness factor inherent in a bunch of April flowers. It's so easy to make a pastel bouquet this time of year - lavenders, baby pinks and blues combine with fresh gre...

Sometimes I wonder if I'm going to find myself warning someone not to pick the lacy blossoms of poison hemlock when they're in bloom along the trail here, which sounds like it's just plain dangerous to handle, but I pick where I know the county's going to trim, and I pick invasive weeds, like tansy, in massive armfuls. We just don't have many showy natives suitable for picking along the side of the row here. Sambucca racemosa smells too bad.

I think this vase is a lizard...or maybe it's a frog...but I love how it's patterning plays off spring flowers, keeping down the sweetness factor inherent in a bunch of April flowers. It's so easy to make a pastel bouquet this time of year - lavenders, baby pinks and blues combine with fresh gre...

Please welcome Debra Prinzing, author of The 50 Mile Bouquet, a documentary-style book that takes a fascinating and in-depth look at local, not global, flower-growing. We're giving another copy away, but you're going to have to work for it--Debra asks you to post a photo of one of your own bouq...

My husband wants figs, so I'll have to research the Celeste because it sounds like it produces only one crop of figs a season, which I suspect is the way to go in places, like mine, marginal for figs, though it's also likely to produce on old wood and winter die back might be an issue then, as I found it to be in espaliering, but the one I had came up readily from the roots, annoyingly even. Hey,nobody told me that fig leaves are fragant when dried and pleasant in potpourri or that they make a nice addition, when used in very small quantites and cooked, in fruit punches. If you've got latex allergies, though, beware.

If the daffodils are pushing up out of the ground and the grocery stores are selling primroses, it must be time to start thinking about new plants....our acquisitive instincts rise with the sap...and no wonder with all the tempting new plants introduced every spring. In late winter I have the we...

Pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) is a low growing perennial that's in full and glorious bloom right now. Its foliage is finely cut, lacy, and glossed with silver. The anemone-like flower is large in comparison to the size of the plant, and held up above the foliage on wiry stems. Its deep p...

My husband attached a milk crate to the back rack of my bike. Though I only transport passive goods, would your dog stay in it, do you think? Does make the bike a trifle top heavy, though, so a bit wobbly. How much does your dog weigh? Carrying things in the front is actually more stable, in my experience.

Pantone is a self-described "world-wide authority on color"... I'm sure the company is influential in home decor, furnishings and even clothing. But the last couple of years they've trended too sweet - last year turquoise was the color of the year, and they've just announced honeysuckle pink f...

If hip feed troughs strike you as an oxymoron, visit the new 1111 E. Pike Street condos. Designed by Tom Kundig, they'e 27 units of boutique cool, topped off by a rooftop deck. The plantings are mostly drought-tolerant rosemary, phormium and small conifers, growing in round and bullet-shaped fee...